Sergeant Sam Gloade (Glode), DCM (April 20, 1878 – October 25, 1957) was a decorated

Mi'kmaq The Mi'kmaq (also ''Mi'gmaq'', ''Lnu'', ''Miꞌkmaw'' or ''Miꞌgmaw''; ; ) are a First Nations people of the Northeastern Woodlands, indigenous to the areas of Canada's Atlantic Provinces and the Gaspé Peninsula of Quebec as well as the northe ...

soldier from

Milton, Nova Scotia Milton is a village located immediately north of Liverpool, Nova Scotia in the Region of Queens Municipality, Nova Scotia, Region of Queens Nova Scotia. The village is most well known for being the birthplace of the international best selling au ...

. He served in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and was awarded the

Distinguished Conduct Medal The Distinguished Conduct Medal was a decoration established in 1854 by Queen Victoria for gallantry in the field by other ranks of the British Army. It is the oldest British award for gallantry and was a second level military decoration, ranki ...

, the

British War Medal The British War Medal is a campaign medal of the United Kingdom which was awarded to officers and men of British and Imperial forces for service in the First World War. Two versions of the medal were produced. About 6.5 million were struck in si ...

and the Victory Medal. He trained first with the

64th Battalion, CEF The 64th Battalion, CEF was an infantry battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force during the Great War. The 64th Battalion was authorized on 20 April 1915 and embarked for Great Britain on 31 March 1916. The battalion provided reinforcements to ...

, an infantry reinforcement holding unit in England, and then joined the

1st Canadian Tunnelling Company The 1st Canadian Tunnelling Company was one of the tunnelling companies of the Canadian Military Engineers during World War I. The tunnelling units were occupied in offensive and defensive mining involving the placing and maintaining of mines ...

Canadian Engineers Engineers Canada ( French: ') is the national organization of the 12 provincial and territorial associations that regulate the practice of engineering in Canada. Engineers Canada serves these associations, which are its sole members, by delivering ...

. Sam was in the

Battle of Messines (1917) The Battle of Messines (7–14 June 1917) was an attack by the British Second Army (General Sir Herbert Plumer), on the Western Front, near the village of Messines (now Mesen) in West Flanders, Belgium, during the First World War. The Nivell ...

. He reported: :Late that afternoon the German artillery on Messines Ridge began to shell our trench and kept it up for a long time. They scared us bad, I tell you. We were all green hands, and we would leave our rifles and run along the trench away from shell burst. Then another shell would burst near us and we would run down the trench again. Some fellows got hit and they hollered and there was a lot of blood. He dug trenches under

Vimy Ridge The Battle of Vimy Ridge was part of the Battle of Arras, in the Pas-de-Calais department of France, during the First World War. The main combatants were the four divisions of the Canadian Corps in the First Army, against three divisions of ...

, patched roadways near Amiens and defused mines after the war. On one occasion, he was in charge of 20 soldiers who got trapped underground. He is credited with having single-handedly dug for hours before he was able to burrow a hole to the surface. He worked from the La Clytte Camp (close to

Ypres Ypres ( , ; nl, Ieper ; vls, Yper; german: Ypern ) is a Belgian city and municipality in the province of West Flanders. Though the Dutch name is the official one, the city's French name is most commonly used in English. The municipality co ...

in Belgium) for over a year. Glode was also in the

Battle of Passchendaele The Third Battle of Ypres (german: link=no, Dritte Flandernschlacht; french: link=no, Troisième Bataille des Flandres; nl, Derde Slag om Ieper), also known as the Battle of Passchendaele (), was a campaign of the First World War, fought by t ...

and

Battle of Amiens (1918) The Battle of Amiens, also known as the Third Battle of Picardy (french: 3ème Bataille de Picardie), was the opening phase of the Allied offensive which began on 8 August 1918, later known as the Hundred Days Offensive, that ultimately led t ...

. Gloade is buried in the St. Gregory's Roman Catholic Church Cemetery, Milton, Nova Scotia. Thomas Raddall, "Sam Glode: Travels of a Micmac," Cape Breton's Magazine, 35 (January 1984), pp. 26-27.
/ref> His son Louis was a member of the Nova Scotia Highlanders and was wounded by a piece of shrapnel.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gloade, Sam 1878 births 1957 deaths 20th-century First Nations people Canadian Army Canadian engineers Canadian military personnel from Nova Scotia Royal Canadian Engineers soldiers Canadian Expeditionary Force soldiers Mi'kmaq people People from Queens County, Nova Scotia Canadian recipients of the Distinguished Conduct Medal Tunnel warfare in World War I

See also

References